Qantas health irrelevant in Emirates tie-up: ACCC

Australia's competition watchdog says there does not appear to be any evidence that Qantas is exaggerating the problems in its international business in order to garner approval for a joint venture with the Middle Eastern carrier, Emirates.

In December, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission granted draft approval for a tie-up between the two airlines.

Unions and the independent senator, Nick Xenophon, have called for the ACCC to undertake an audit of Qantas's finances to see if costs are being shifted around.

However, the ACCC's chairman Rod Sims has told the AM program that an audit is not necessary because the deal will not have a significant effect on competition.

"Had we said, look the competitive detriment is really strong, therefore the only way you could justify this is the fact that Qantas is going to get off these routes and is in dire trouble, then you would have needed to do what Senator Xenophon in particular is talking about," he explained.

Mr Sims says the ACCC's analysis of the deal found there would be some small benefits to passengers through increased connections and greater access to reward programs, and little reduction in competition because the routes currently serviced by both Qantas and Emirates also have many other airlines operating on them.

"When we looked at the Qantas accounts and we looked at the logic of their business, we really didn't see that absent the deal, there'd be much change to their flying to the US or Asia, for example, but we did think that they are under some pressure on the European legs, but we didn't think there was going to be much change there," he said.

"It's a very competitive route there so, whether Qantas and Emirates combine or not, there really isn't going to be much competitive detriment because of all the other airlines that can help you fly between Australia and Europe."